Frenchman Anelka says his Stamford Bridge team-mate has finally settled ­following his £50m move from Liverpool and is ready to terrorise ­defences up and down the country.

Former Arsenal, Real Madrid and ­Liverpool striker Anelka has cost a total of £86m in transfer fees and knows the weight of expectation a big money move can bring.

But he says Torres is now preparing his own version of payback time.

Anelka said: “It’s difficult when you come into a club for a lot of money.

“I should know. You feel a lot of pressure. You have to play, you have to score and you have to play well.

“It was difficult in the beginning for Fernando but I think he looks better now.

“He has scored already this summer and I think he will be better this season. Even in training he looks better.

“It’s never easy when you come from another club and you have new tactics, new players to get used to. But everybody knows his quality – he showed that at Liverpool.

“The problem is that at Chelsea we don’t play the same way. There’s not the same group of players and it was

difficult for him in the beginning.

“Now I think you will see an improvement.”

This summer Anelka has been one of the players with a cloud hanging over him that has nothing to do with the smog in Malaysia’s muggy capital city.

The arrival of Spanish World Cup ­winner Torres last January is what has put his place, above many others, at ­major risk at Stamford Bridge.

As Anelka was all too often relegated to the bench towards the end of a disappointing season it seemed that he would be the first man shown the door.

A move to join his brother Claude in the USA was mooted, with the New York Red Bulls interested.

His old club Paris St Germain have been linked, and this week there were hints of an offer from the Middle East.

But Anelka, aged 32 and with one year left of an £80,000-a-week contract which Chelsea seem unwilling to ­extend, is adamant he is staying.

With new manager Andre Villas-Boas looking likely to stick to the 4-3-3 formation his predecessor Carlo Ancelotti favoured, Anelka could miss out.

With Didier Drogba still at the club and Daniel Sturridge returning from his ­successful loan spell at Bolton – plus a bid for the highly promising young ­Belgian Romelu Lukaku on the cards – it looks like there will be an almighty ­battle for a place in the Chelsea attack.

But Anelka insists: “I still have one more year here and I’m pleased with the work I’ve done since I joined Chelsea.

“I want to stay on until the end of my contract and after that we will see what happens.

“I don’t know anything about any offers, I never said I wanted to leave Chelsea.

“Even if there is an offer from someone else I don’t care because I am seeing out my contract here.

“I said at the beginning when I signed that I wanted to stay until I finished my contract and that is still the case.

“It brings out the best in everybody. When you play for a team like Chelsea you have to fight for your place.

“We have a lot of good strikers here. We’re going to be fighting this season and the best players will play.

“Being left out is part of the game. I try to do everything I can when I come onto the pitch.

“If someone comes and fights for my place then I will fight as well.

“It’s about what happens on the pitch. It is nothing to do with the price.”